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		D-Backs offense awakens against A’s By Daniel Dullum June 18, 2008

	PHOENIX, Ariz. – After going through its worst offensive funk of the season, Arizona’s bats woke up against Oakland’s Joe Blanton Wednesday night in an 11-1 interleague win over the Athletics. In the process, the Diamondbacks avenged Tuesday’s 15-1 loss with an 11-hit attack of their own. “It felt great,” Diamondbacks outfielder Chris Young said. “It wasn’t just one of us, it was the entire lineup. Especially for myself and couple of other guys who have been struggling, it was great to get the bats going in big time situations. It helps build your confidence.” “We might have taken it a little bit personal,” Diamondbacks starter Dan Haren said about the win over his former A’s teammates. “We came out flat yesterday, and I think the offense made a statement today. “We’ve been waiting to bust out for a while and it kind of felt like April out there, getting all those runs early and just rolling.” Playing in the forgiving National League West helps. The Snakes, at 38-34, remain in first place in spite of their recent sputtering against Pittsburgh and Kansas City. “Five runs in the first is big,” Diamondbacks Manager Bob Melvin said. “C.Y. (Chris Young)’s homer was big, not only for us, but for him. It seemed like the guys were swinging the bat a little better today.” Young, however, pointed out that the 15-1 loss was easy to put behind. “You don’t forget about it, but you get over it. It counts the same as a 2-1 loss, it’s still a loss either way and you have to come back and be ready for the next game.” Coming into the game, the Diamondbacks were hitting .255 (150-for-589) with runners in scoring position – 10th in the National League. That statistic improved a little when the D-Backs hammered Blanton for eight runs on seven hits in the first three innings. Blanton threw 75 pitches in a start that seemed longer than it was. “It’s good to have a breakout game like this,” Young said. “Joe Blanton’s a great pitcher, that’s understood, so to go out there against somebody as good as he is and swing the bats as well as we did means a lot.” Arizona came up with one big hit after another, beginning with a five-run first inning. Chad Tracy’s bases-loaded double drove in the first two runs, and Chris Young, dropped to seventh in the order, finished the job with a three-run blast. “It was good to see Tracy get going a little bit,” Melvin said. “We don’t have to have everybody hot. If we get a couple of guys in the middle of the order and some of the guys around them just doing what their average would suggest, we’ll be all right. “Hopefully, this is something we can build on,” Haren, the ex-Oakland ace, helped himself out in the third with a bases-loaded double to center that, with two out, cleared the bases. “I wasn’t trying to do too much with two strikes, just trying to put the bat on the ball,” Haren said. “[Blanton] struck me out before on a similar pitch with the ball starting off the plate and running in. I just tried to put the bat on the ball, and the outfielders play in on me most of the time, so if I hit a good one, I get it by them. I was able to do that, and it was nice.” “It looked like a good pitch, a breaking ball down in the zone,” Melvin said. “But that was the hit that broke the game open.” Oakland finally broke through in the seventh with Kurt Suzuki’s RBI single. But Haren finished with seven strong innings, eight strikeouts, one walk and four hits. Of pitching against his former team, Haren said, “It was a little weird, a lot of those guys are still close friends for me, like Mark Ellis, Eric Chavez, and Joe Blanton is one of my closest friends. Blanton is one of the few guys that I actually watch and root for.” If there was an advantage for Haren, he felt it could have worked either way. “You can look at it both ways,” Haren said. “They know what I throw and I know them a little bit with their strengths. I went out there with an aggressive approach, working the bottom of the strike zone.” Despite Young’s impressive night (2-for-4 with a double and the three-run homer), Melvin has no plans to move him up in the order right away. “Not tomorrow! But, yeah, down the road,” Melvin said. “Right now, it’s important to get C.Y. going and take a little pressure off of him. But we’ll try to keep him somewhere near the middle of the order to take advantage of his power.” Not trying to put too much importance on one game in June, Haren did feel that in light of how things have been going for the Diamondbacks of late, the lop-sided win was a needed tonic. “Team-wise this was a very important win because we haven’t been playing very well at home,” Haren said. “This is a critical time for us, and we’re trying to find out what kind of team we are. We know what we’re capable of, and I feel confident in this team. We’ll make a run eventually and hopefully extend whatever lead we have.” Mets less than classy in Randolph exit Late Monday night, Major League Baseball had its first managerial firing of the 2008 season. The immediate results were predictably nondescript. It was just about midnight when New York Mets Manager Willie Randolph, First Base Coach Tom Nieto and Pitching Coach Rick Peterson all got the ax from General Manager Omar Minaya following a 5-3 Mets win over the Los Angeles Angels. It was the Metropolitans’ third win in their last four games, so obviously the manager and two coaches had to go. If nothing else, the Mets succeeded in taking the back page of the New York tabloids away from the Yankees by firing a manager the way George Steinbrenner used to. It was done in the lobby of the team hotel, weeks after Randolph was slapped down by Minaya and the Wilpons (who own the team) after some public remarks about race that Mets management didn’t appreciate. But even before the ill-timed comments, Randolph seemed to be a marked man. This goes back to last season, when he presided over one of the most notable late-season collapses in recent baseball history. Ever since, Randolph’s term as Mets manager seemed to be day-to-day. Having a high-priced, underachieving ballclub didn’t help, culminating in a hideous, cowardly dismissal. One of the most surprising sidebars of Randolph’s firing was the dismissal of Nieto and Peterson. The first base coach, unless he has other more pressing duties, generally is in charge of helping baserunners avoid getting picked off, relaying signs and, on balls hit in the gap, telling hitters to make a left turn. Canning Nieto, a former Twins backup catcher, will undoubtedly be a major factor in turning the Mets’ season around. So will the exit of Peterson, one of the finest and most highly respected pitching coaches in all of baseball. He should remain out of work for approximately 15 minutes. Bench Coach Jerry Manuel got the promotion, and the Mets have promptly gone back to their old lackluster ways, losing 6-1 Tuesday to the Angels. Usually a team wins a couple of games under the new skipper before settling back into the routine that got the old manager fired in the first place. If nothing else, the 2008 Mets are a model of consistency. In a few days, Randolph will realize that the Mets did him a favor after letting him swing in the breeze for too long. He was class personified as a player and coach for the Yankees and did the same while winning 303 games in three-plus seasons as the Mets manager. So often, those on the receiving end of a shoddy firing did little to deserve it. Add Willie Randolph to that list.